Geneva (AFP) - Talks at the World Trade Organization went deep into overtime on Thursday with key holdout India talking up the prospects for a landmark deal spanning food security, fishing and combating Covid-19.
With ministers struggling to conclude agreements on each separate issue, countries have worked on round the clock, making trade-offs which, they hope, could see several measures go through in a grand bargain.
Ministers from the global trade body's 164 members have been negotiating face-to-face since Sunday at the WTO's headquarters in Geneva, in their first such conference since the December 2017 flop in Buenos Aires.
They added a fifth day of talks to try to break the deadlock -- and prove the organisation can play a role in tackling big global challenges.
Some delegations have accused India of being intransigent on every topic under discussion at the WTO -- where decisions can only pass with the agreement of all 164 members.
But Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal sounded upbeat as the talks ploughed on towards midnight.
"India is convinced that this will turn out to be one of the most successful ministerials that the WTO has seen in a long time," he told reporters.
"We are very confident that the progress made...and the positivity with which everybody is engaged truly is a matter of celebration for the world.
"I'm sure that that spirit will help us cross the hump.
"We have taken some solid decisions...subject to a few issues being sorted out."
EU targets 'positive outcomes'
EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis later told AFP negotiations were ongoing and "quite complicated" because there were "major issues to handle".
"We are in a complicated geopolitical situation and also the views across different work streams are quite divergent," he said.
"We need to address those divergences but I would say we're working towards positive outcomes and hopefully we'll be able to reach such positive outcomes."
Ministers have been trying to secure deals on curbing harmful fishing subsidies; temporarily waiving Covid-19 vaccine patents; food security; agriculture; e-commerce; the WTO's response to pandemics; and reform of the organisation itself.
Countries hit a brick wall late Wednesday trying to secure each separate deal on its own merits, so they spent the night horse-trading to try to keep them all afloat in some format.
Those talks went on throughout Thursday, way past the predicted finish time.
Fisheries exemption
WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who took over in March 2021, has hinged her leadership on breathing new life into the sclerotic organisation.
The former foreign and finance minister of Nigeria is hoping to pull off a coup by finalising a long-sought deal on curbing harmful fishing subsidies.
Negotiations towards banning subsidies that encourage overfishing and threaten the sustainability of the planet's fish stocks have been going on at the WTO for more than two decades.
Several sources close to the discussions said the draft agreement on the conference's flagship issue has been heavily watered down.
India has been pushing for a 25-year exemption -- far longer than many countries are comfortable with.
However, Goyal insisted India had compromised and accepted it was not going to get everything it wanted.
"India is not a roadblock on anything," he said.
"People are realising that we were the ones who actually helped create the sole consensus."
Britain's Covid jabs booster
Delegations were discussing late into the night the possibility of imposing a temporary waiver on Covid-19 vaccine patents.
Some countries that host major pharmaceutical companies, like Britain and Switzerland, were finding some of the draft wording problematic, while big pharma fears a deal strangling innovation.
But Britain's ambassador in Geneva, Simon Manley, revealed that London was now ready to join the consensus.
"We understand the aim of this decision that is before us is to make it easier for developing countries that choose to do so to make exports of life-saving Covid-19 vaccines more streamlined, while preserving the incentive to invest in innovation embedded in IP rights," he told Okonjo-Iweala.
"We also understand that this decision is part of a wider MC12 emergencies response package and that it demonstrates our commitment to a positive outcome at this ministerial conference.
"The British government is indeed now ready to join the consensus," he said, to applause.
rjm-burs/vog/har
